The Blessing of the Tengu
by Amenonuhoko
Summary: What if the villager’s hatred for Naruto ran even deeper? Forbidden to enter the Academy, Naruto was forced to be an illiterate adolescent with no real skills. On the verge of suicide, salvation came with a long nose.
1. Chapter 1

The Blessing of the Tengu

Prologue

- -

Summary: What if the villager's hatred for Naruto ran even deeper? Forbidden to enter the Academy, Naruto was forced to be an illiterate adolescent with no real skills. On the verge of suicide, salvation came with a long nose.

- -

The room was bleak, filled with sorrow and despair that seldom would appear. The usual stoic yet placid expression on his face was gone, and possibly will never return. It had no reason to.

Practically shouting in exasperation, Sarutobi, otherwise known as 'The Third Hokage,' continued to torture his desk with a flurry of blows. Tiring, albeit appeasing, he stopped punching his desk. Sarutobi was by no means a child; there was no reason he should behave like one. He had to set a good example for the coming generation.

With a quick toss of a hand, the heavy desk was flung out of the window and nearly crashed into a murder.

If it hadn't been for a soft giggle, a deafening silence would have filled the room.

In a dark corner, a cradle began to ominously rock itself. A child with thick blonde hair was smiling serenely, as though he found the old man's acts of anger to be entertaining.

Sarutobi stood up and walked towards the cradle. With a grimacing smile, he picked up the gay child and hugged him, like a grandfather would do to his abandon grandchild.

Once again, the baby giggled innocently and smiled.

He too found himself smiling. Seldom would you see a newborn smiling, let alone giggling. '_A miracle!' _quoted one of the medics that were near the pedestal, although, he had done so sarcastically.

"A miracle, indeed!" the 3rd laughed. The baby began to squirm in his arms, quickly and yet silently. It wasn't long till he fell asleep in his arms, slumbering peacefully and completely oblivious to the terrors that would befall him in his following years.

Sarutobi sighed, his brow furrowed in confusion, anger, and dull yet reluctant acceptance.

"Why can't they accept you for who you truly are?"

- -

End


	2. The Beginning

The Blessing of the Tengu

Chapter I

The Beginning

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A sad melody filled the air in an otherwise empty and gloomy room. A child was humming, and what a peculiar sound it was. Filled with despair and overwhelming sadness, bitter tears that should be but wasn't there, he continued to hum, finding silent appeasement in his own company. He broke out in chorus, whispering to a red candle that illuminated his room.

"Happy birthday to me," he said slowly, his voice unfeeling and monotonous, as though it was a routine- a sad and piteous routine.

"Happy birthday to me," he continued. Had he not been used to being isolated and alone for the past nine years of life, the child would've broke out in tears. But, he was used to it… because he was different. That was why he wasn't allowed in the Academy like the rest. Just _how _he was different, he was not sure.

He stared at the candle's flame as it fluttered here and there, till it finally burned out in a pool of melted wax. A crisp wind blew into his apartment then, bringing him to a cold fetal position that he was so used to. His final words that night echoed into empty boxes that were never there, into a barren hallway devoid of life and joy, and finally into his kitchen were periodic foods, merriment in preparing for the day, and love and devotion never happened.

"Happy birthday, Naruto. Happy birthday to me."

So said the Hero who was never known.

-

Into the rustle and bustle of the streets did he. Being thrown glares after glares, Naruto shrank under the negative attention he did not want.

Why was he out here, he did not know. Perhaps it was to be with other people, or to hear the sounds of life that has been denied to him. Whatever the reason was, he did not care or intended to fret over it.

Naruto had long given up hope for company, friendship, and love.

Looking towards a rather interesting restaurant, he saw many children his age conversing loudly. Here he was, alone in a street, and there they were, his peers being merry without a fear in the world.

Perhaps, it was best this way, he thought. Not typical for a child to think about, he truly wondered at that moment when a woman purposely shoved him on the ground with one arm and pushed away her daughter with the other if there is truly someone out there for him.

The Gods have not been kind to him over the years, but, he wouldn't sell out that 'Providence is a bitch.' It was only a matter of time before he gets what coming to him.

'For better or worse,' he thought shrewdly, getting off his rump to only be pushed by a larger man with a sneering grin, as though proud for his hazing.

Naruto sighed then, 'For better or worse.' Wiping grim and soot off his back, he continued to walk with no destination in mind.

It was karma, after all.

-

"Who is he?" a pink-haired girl asked her blonde classmate. The latter shrugged absentmindedly.

"Don't know." She tossed her hair, whacking an indigo-haired girl in the face. "Don't care." She gazed off to a corner where a boy with raven haired boy had disappeared. She sighed in exasperation and disappointment… only to glare at her 'friend' with a loud accusation of 'Sasuke-kun is gone because of you!' a second later.

Ignoring her friend's quiet yet unreal sobbing, she turned to her other friend. She was nursing her face.

"Do you know him Hinata-chan?"

She shook her head. "No," she said in her usual low-tone. "Sorry, Sakura-san." Her voice was barely audible.

"Huh? That's odd!" she declared suddenly.

"What's odd?" The blonde had a look of confusion on her face.

"Do I really have to say it, Ino-pig?" When the girl was about to respond, Sakura beats her to the punch. "Don't you see Ino; or is your blonde nature getting the better of you?" She paused for a second, and truly wondered if that was possible. "He's always alone. Every time I see him, he is always alone! Nobody knows him, and he doesn't speak! And if that wasn't enough, he always has that dumb 'Stoic Look' on his face."

"Now that you mention it, I always hear those stupid adults telling their kids to stay away from him." Sakura nodded at this statement, having encountered it herself several years ago. "B-u-u-u-t; that (He) doesn't matter. What does matter right now is who is going to be my bridesmaid in the future at _my_ wedding with Sasuke-kun!"

"In your dreams, Ino-pig." Sakura began walking away before breaking into a sprint towards where she might think Sasuke is.

Ino followed in hot pursuit, leaving Hinata to stare at the isolated boy as he was pushed down again.

A troubling thought ran through her mind.

'Why do they hate him?'

-

"I haven't done anything wrong!" Naruto glared at his antagonist again. He was a large and fat man, always smelling of fish and sake. This male was quite different from the others. _He was a Jounin. _

"…Yet!" he barked, his bare and visible stomach rumbling from his shout. "Damn demon… Leave this village already!" Looking down at the adolescent cornered in the alley, he made a swift kick to his abdomen. A cry of sharp pain brought a sickening grin across his face. "Nobody wants you here!" Seeing that he was down, he began trouncing his back.

"Leave me alone." Naruto's voice was barely audible through the rapid sounds of bones crunching against earth.

"Say what?" He reached down and grabbed the smaller child by the gruff of the neck. Pulling him up to eye level, he hawked back and spat all over Naruto's face.

"**_Leave me alone!" _**His voice was much more adamant, much to his credit. Naruto emphasized his demand with an attempt to punch the bigger man's face. His fist met solid stone.

His yelp of pain was barely heard when he fell to his rump with a classical sound of 'Uommph!'

Had the situation been any lighter, he would have gasped in awe. It was a simple replacement technique to others, but it had been magic to him.

"So, the demon brat bares his fangs for the first time." A cold piece of metal was felt against Naruto's neck. Shifting his head a bit to his right, he saw the older male knelling behind him. "Hmm…. It's reason enough to _defend _myself."

Before the Jounin screamed in terror and his body torn into pieces of flesh, he saw a red glimmer in the child's cold blue eyes for the first time…

----

End


End file.
